Winterize wind generator?

[Jgrzadka]

Do anybody anybody have any experience with wind generators over the winter. When I winterized by boat last fall I chose to leave the wind generator connected to the batteries to keep them topped off during the winter. Since the temperatures has been fluctuating between 10 degrees above and 20 degrees below freezing (Celsius) I am worried of ice build up on the blades. On the web I only found irrelevant information on industrial wind generators which loose efficiency if the blades are not heated.

Can the wind generator break due to ice buildup? Should I tie off the blades to prevent them from braking or am I worrying for nothing?

Any advice would be welcome.

[Mike OReilly]

I have always taken mine down for winter. What with the high winter winds, snow, sleet, freezing rain etc., it just seems prudent to me. I have seen others leave theirs up, and I haven't actually heard about any problems, but personally I'd not take the chance.

My wintering location have included northern and southern Ontario, and now Newfoundland. So I too experience real winters (like you).

[Bill O]

The issue w/ice on the blades would be uneven weight and potentially shorten the life of the bearings if allowed to spin at high speeds.

That said, we just replaced bearings after 15 yrs so I'm not thinking its that its that big of a deal.

As suggested could remove the wind gen or tie off the blades to prolong the bearing life.


Bill O.

[Jgrzadka]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It helps calm the boaters anxiety in me. I went to the boat and noticed that two of my batteries were at 8 volts because they were connected together in parallel (my mistake). The third battery is at 13 volts so the wind generator is keeping it topped up. I disconnected the parallel connection and decided to leave the wind generator to charge up the dead battery. I doubt it will come back to life but it justifies leaving the wind generator running with a charge. My other worry was that the wind generator might overcharge my batteries since there is no load on them. Anyways, thanks for sharing your experience, probably next year I will tie off the blades.